Beastie Boys A Scream

Boston A Bust

You`ve gotta fight for your right to party, the Beastie Boys insist on Licensed to Ill, and the LP`s 13 tracks enact exactly that struggle for bad, dirty fun.

This trio of white, heavy metal Big Apple rappers managed to utterly alienate the mainstream youth of America during their stint as the raucous opening act on Madonna`s tour, and Licensed to Ill will doubtless have the same unfortunate effect on mainstream parents. With hilarious acuity, the Beasties set out to confirm every nefarious suspicion about the sexual, violent and barbaric content of rap and heavy metal records. But Licensed to Ill is ultimately about as threatening as a Roadrunner cartoon -- and for anyone with a sense of humor and a fondness for infectious beats -- twice as entertaining.

-- BOSTON: Third Stage (MCA).

The return of the `70s is so completely under way that five minutes after it was first pointed out in the rock press, it became a cliche. Boston`s Third Stage, an album released in 1986 by a band whose last LP appeared 1978 and that sounds as if it were made in 1975, is the ultimate expression of that cliche.

The punch line is that it`s the nation`s No. 1 record. Third Stage, despite the appealing good-heartedness of guitarist/songwriter Tom Scholz, is a disaster.

Two of the tracks are bombastic instrumentals one -- A New World, clocks in at 37 seconds -- and two others, Amanda and My Destination, crib the melody line from Elton John`s Someone Saved My Life Tonight. The record`s unifying ``concept`` -- ``the story of a journey into life`s Third Stage,`` whatever that means -- demonstrates that, while the teens who bought the first Boston album are now in their mid-20s, Scholz himself is still firmly ensconced in adolescence.